May on Instagram

Can you believe that it's already June? Where did May go? It was such a busy month for us with birthdays, parties, sporting events, major events like Maker Faire and a Cure concert, plus lots of trips to the park.

This past month on Instagram there have been lots of photos of Mathilde on her balance bike because she rides it absolutely everywhere now. She's so fast on it - I often have to run to keep up! She's so desperate to be a big kids like Ava and Lola.

I love seeing all of my girls growing up, learning new things (like super high karate kicks) and experiencing new things (like getting their hair dyed purple), but oh how I wish they would slow down a little. They're all growing up too fast.

Make sure to follow Little Hiccups on Instagram to keep up to date with what these crazy kids are up to - because you know I'm always a little behind here on the blog! Me, late? Never!

Karate kids need lots of energy for all that kicking. Chocolate milk is Lola's favorite fuel. Mine? Mine's coffee, but I'm not a karate kid 😜 https://ooh.li/a34b07c #sp #stirimagination #nesquik #lola #karate #karatekid #dmlivingwithkids

A photo posted by Sally Mason (@littlehiccups) on May 3, 2016 at 7:34pm PDT

On the blog I'm sharing Mathilde's digger party from the weekend. I still can't believe my baby is two years old already. #Mathilde #diggerparty #party #birthday #2yearsold #birthdayparty

A photo posted by Sally Mason (@littlehiccups) on May 4, 2016 at 8:08pm PDT

This past weekend was so hot it felt like Summer! On the blog (link in profile) I'm sharing our afternoon spent exploring a local creek and what the girls learned about the creatures they found. https://ooh.li/4c272e5 #sp #galileo #mathilde #berkeley #littleexplorers #nature #summer #ontheblog

A photo posted by Sally Mason (@littlehiccups) on May 5, 2016 at 11:33am PDT

April on Instagram

Are you following Little Hiccups on Instagram?

A lot of the pictures I share on Instagram also appear here on Little Hiccups, but there are also quite a few behind the scenes shots that don't make it onto the blog. Sunsets over San Francisco Bay from our roof top, videos of Mathilde doing crazy stuff, pictures from on the go taken on my iPhone... Instagram is the place for these sorts of shots.

Today I'm sharing some of the highlights from Little Hiccups on Instagram during April. I hope to post share an Instagram highlight post each month looking back at the past month.

Make sure you check out the video of Mathilde skateboarding. It's a classic!

Oh, and there's some pretty amazing hair right at the end of this post!

My April Fool's Day prank on the kids... They found this "official" National Parks letter under the door of our hotel room at the Grand Canyon. Good thing we packed swimsuits and goggles! 😂 #aprilfools #ava #prank #grandcanyon

A photo posted by Sally Mason (@littlehiccups) on Apr 2, 2016 at 5:03pm PDT

I'm a Powerpuff Girl! #powerpuffyourself

A photo posted by Sally Mason (@littlehiccups) on Apr 3, 2016 at 1:50pm PDT

I know it's not #tbt today, but this pic of Lola and Ava at Roaring Camp popped up on my Facebook feed today as a memory from four years ago. Four years later and it's still one of my favorite photos ever! #Ava #Lola #roaringcamp #roaringcamprailroads #jump #sisters

A photo posted by Sally Mason (@littlehiccups) on Apr 4, 2016 at 12:04pm PDT

Printstagram Calendar Giveaway

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It's no secret. I take a LOT of photos. My trusty camera is almost always by my side and for those moments when it's not, my iPhone is always ready to snap a shot. Those iPhone shots inevitably end up on Instagram, then Facebook, then Twitter, then maybe my blog...

While those iPhone shots tend not to be as high quality as the photos taken with my real camera, they often end up becoming my favourites. They're usually more candid and capture brief moments in time when I wasn't actually planning on taking a photo. Plus the right Instagram filter can make a big difference.

While my photos may be everywhere digitally, I don't really have that many printed photos in my home. The era of digital photography has all but brought an end to that. There's no need for bulky photo albums filling up book shelves or shoe boxes of photos stashed away in cupboards. Whenever I want to see my photos I can just look on my computer, iPad or phone. While I love the convenience of digital photography and the easy, space saving storage I've got to admit that I do miss having printed photos around. Not albums and albums worth mind you, just the special photos that make me smile.

That's where Social Print Studio's Printstagram comes in handy. Printstagram offers various high quality printing options for your Instagram photos including archival quality prints, mini books, stickers, posters and greeting cards. The Social Print Shop has a great range of display options for your printed photos. I quite like the concrete photo block shown below.

Happy Father's Day USA

It's Father's Day again here in the USA.

It feels like only yesterday that we were celebrating Father's Day but I guess seeing as Kim gets two of them a year (June for USA and September for Australia) it really wasn't that long ago.

Here's a look at the card I made for Kim using photos from our recent trip to the redwoods.

Have a tree-mendous Father's Day

Wishing all the Dads out there a "tree-mendous" Father's Day!

Sun Prints

Ava is on Summer Vacation at the moment so I've been preparing all sorts of fun craft/science projects to keep her occupied.

Yesterday was warm and sunny so we headed up to the roof deck to make Sun Prints.

Sun Print paper + Cheerios = Fun print

Sun Prints are basically a very simple form of photography. Objects placed on the special Sun Print paper will leave an image behind when placed in the sun for a small amount of time. The Sun Print paper is made by Lawrence Hall of Science here in Berkeley. We picked up a few packs on our recent visit which you can read about here.

Mother's Day Cards 2012

Mother's Day 2012 and has been and gone so I thought I'd share the card that the girls and I made for the Grandmas and Great-Grandmas back home in Australia.

This year I worked on about three different ideas for cards before I settled on the final idea. I had great ideas in my head about some fantastic photos I was going to take of the girls but they just didn't work out well enough. A lack of natural light in our apartment, grey days, uncooperative children and me just not having enough time to get everything done got in the way.

But we did get there in the end and I think the result was pretty cute.

Wishing you rainbows and happiness for a special Mother's Day

Mother's Day card

I had hoped to take a photo of the girls up on our rooftop garden with the beautiful San Francisco Bay in the background. As luck would have it we were having rainy weather and the view was completely shrouded by cloud - which is often the case on sunny days anyway! I figured I'd make the most of the rainy weather and have the girls pose under Ava's umbrella. I then added a little Ava magic to the card by adding in a rainbow and hair bows from some of her drawings.

The original photo of Lola and Ava in the rain

Little sisters in the rain

 One of my earlier ideas had been to have the girls play dress ups with my clothes, shoes, jewellery and make up. The had a great time dressing up and I really wanted to use photos from this little shoot but the lighting just wasn't good enough. These were taken on the same rainy day as the photos above. As our apartment faces onto a central courtyard in our building it doesn't have the best natural light on gloomy days.
Maybe this is something we'll have to try again for another card idea (Mother's Day 2013, perhaps?) and hope for better lighting conditions.

Little Mummies put on their lipstick

Applying blush

Working on their makeup at the bathroom sink

All made up and ready for a little shopping!

High heels

My original idea for Mother's Day cards this year involved making paper magnolias. I had planned to make masses of pink and white magnolia blooms and take beautiful photos of the girls with them. The flowers were easy enough to make but quite time consuming. I ended up only making three before I was running out of time to get the cards done. I think the magnolias came out quite well though so I'll get around to making more of them at some point and they can adorn the girls' bedroom.

You can find instructions and a template for these paper magnolias at marthastewartweddings.com

Paper magnolias

Ava also drew a lovely Mother's Day picture for each of the Grandmas and Great-Grandmas and we included these with the cards. I love the attention to detail in these pictures. Granny C (my maternal Grandma) has a prosthetic leg and uses a wheelchair. Ava drew Granny C in a wheelchair and made sure her two feet looked different from each other! Granny O (my paternal Grandma) was given a walking stick and all the Grandmas and Great Grandmas were given grey hair. I also love the whimsical touches - rainbows spreading colour over flowers, love heart flowers and suns, a girlish bow in Granny O's hair...
There's one more Mother's Day drawing for my Mum, but as she will be joining us here in America in just a few day's time I don't want to spoil her surprise :)

The girls with Nanna (Kim's Mum) as drawn by Ava

The girls with Granny C  

The girls with Granny O 

Mother's Days Past

Mother's Day is only a few days away so I thought I'd share a few of the cards I've made in the past.

Let's go back in time...

2007
Mother's Day 2007 was my first as a mother myself. Ava was only 3 months old at the time so not really the most cooperative when it came to taking happy snaps for cards. I posed her in our backyard with a stem of bright geranium flowers from the garden. Being a baby, she started trying to eat the flowers while I was taking photos! Lucky they weren't poisonous.
Look at how much darker Ava's hair was back then...

Holding the flowers nicely...

... and then taking a big bite!

Friend Book

Ava loves drawing pictures and making cards for her friends. This is quite a good activity that keeps her occupied for a long time and that she can do on her own without any supervision - until she needs to write her friend's name. That's when I have to become involved and help out with the spelling.

As Ava is always making cards and pictures for her friends I feel like I spend half my time spelling one name or another to her. I decided to make her a "friend book" so she doesn't need my help spelling her friends' names.

I chose clear, close up photos of Ava's friends to feature in her book and tried to make them as fun as possible. As a result most of the photos are from birthday parties and there is an awful lot of face-painting featured! Under each photo I typed the friend's name. I decided to make the book with one friend per page to avoid any confusion over which name goes with which photo.

I laminated the pages to protect them from the inevitable drink spills or "accidental" texta marks that appear on everything. Once laminated I bound the pages with hinged rings. I chose the hinged rings instead of alternative binding methods so that the book can easily be expanded as Ava makes new friends.

Here are some shots of Ava's "Friend Book":